Ireland: history 1603 to 1782

Siege of Enniskillen Castle, Ireland, February 1593. The castle was first built in the early 15th century by Hugh Maguire, and saw many battles during the Irish rebellions. It fell to the English in 1594 after an eight-day siege, and was remodelled in 1607 under William Cole (who had been granted the Maguire lands). It was again remodelled in the 18th century as the Castle Barracks.

For the history of Ireland before 1603, see Ireland: history to 1154, Ireland: history 1154 to 1485, and Ireland: history 1485 to 1603.

The 17th and 18th centuries saw the military triumph of the English over the Irish Catholics, marked primarily by Cromwell's Irish campaign (1649–50) and, under William (III) of Orange, the Battle of the Boyne (1690). The native Irish people were brutally suppressed; their lands were confiscated and given to Protestants, and they were subjected to a penal code that deprived them of civil liberties.

Protestant settlement and the rule of Strafford The system of plantations, introduced in the Plantation of Ireland by Elizabeth I, was developed during the reign of James I (1603–25). Colonization would, it was hoped, provide a civilized example for barbarous natives. In the Ulster plantation, the possessions of the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel were confiscated, and the lands of Ulster were apportioned to Scottish and English settlers (mainly Presbyterians) and to other grantees, including London companies and Trinity College, Dublin. The administration of the Earl of Strafford, lord deputy of Ireland 1632–39, was the most important one during the early part of Charles I's reign. He promoted industry, law, and order, and restored the country to something approaching prosperity, but his rule was repressive. His most unjust work was the attempt to ‘settle’ Connacht, but before he could carry it out he was recalled to help Charles in England in 1640.

The great rebellion of 1641–49 In 1641 the Great Rebellion broke out in Ireland, supported both by the ‘old Irish’ and by the Norman–Irish. It was inspired by hatred of the rule of Strafford, and by the fear of what would happen under the rule of the Puritan lord justices who took over the administration. Thousands of Protestants in Ireland were killed; incidents such as the Portadown Bridge massacre in Armagh in 1641 fuelled Protestant anger. The situation was complicated by the outbreak of the English Civil War, and the Irish sent some help to King Charles I, who was continually intriguing with them.

Cromwell in Ireland In 1649 the execution of Charles I marked the victory of Parliament and the establishment of the Commonwealth. Parliamentary troops were released for service in Ireland, where the new king, Charles II, had immediately been recognized. The methods of the Parliamentary leaders Oliver Cromwell and Henry Ireton were brutally thorough, and the Irish were crushed altogether. At the battles of Wexford and Drogheda the Irish garrisons were massacred (1649) – Cromwell's estimate of the numbers killed at Drogheda was 2,000, although other sources set it as high as 4,000. Cromwell's conduct at Drogheda has been portrayed as ‘an everlasting blot on the name of a great man’, although some modern historians believe that he was only following the rules of war that prevailed at the time. He had called on the garrison at Drogheda to surrender and they had refused, and he had also instructed his troops to kill only those bearing arms. In the event, his troops killed indiscriminately, including women and children, and every priest that they found was slaughtered. The ‘old Irish’ and Norman–Irish landowners who had opposed the Commonwealth were banished west of the River Shannon, ‘to Hell or Connacht’, and their estates were divided up among the Cromwellian soldiers and those who had put up money to finance the campaign (many of them London merchants). The only merits of Cromwellian rule were the restoration of order and the prosperity that followed from peace. The Catholic religion was, however, sternly repressed.

Restoration Ireland After the Restoration of Charles II (1660) only a minority of the old families recovered their estates, but the Roman Catholic religion was given a certain degree of toleration, and for the greater part of the reign the Duke of Ormond ruled Ireland well for the English king. Apart from a minor plot to take over Dublin by the Cromwellian Colonel Thomas Blood in 1663, the country was peaceful, and agriculture and the linen trade increased prosperity, although the Cattle Acts (1663, 1667, 1671, and 1681), which prohibited the export of cattle, beef, pork, and bacon to England, alienated the Irish people. James II further helped the Catholic cause in Ireland, appointing Catholics to the army and as judges.

The ‘Glorious Revolution’ The Glorious Revolution of 1688 – by which the Catholic James II was ousted from the English throne in favour of the Protestant William III – signalled the outbreak of hostilities between the Catholics and Protestants of the north of Ireland. The Protestants in Londonderry and Enniskillen were besieged, but Londonderry remained uncaptured, until relieved after four months, while the besieged in Enniskillen broke out and won a victory at Newtown Butler. In 1690 the Catholics were routed at the Battle of the Boyne, after which James II left the country and returned to France. William III returned to England, and the Irish rebellion was crushed by John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, assisted by Godart Ginkell, one of William's Dutch officers. Cork and Kinsale fell, and the Irish were defeated at Aughrim. Finally Patrick Sarsfield, after a stalwart defence, surrendered Limerick (1691) and returned to France with his followers to found the famous Irish brigades. By the Articles of Limerick (1691), the English promised amnesty to all Catholics who laid down their arms, and religious and political freedom for Catholics to the degree allowed during the reign of Charles I.

English rule in the 18th century The English Parliament immediately broke the terms of the Articles of Limerick and instead enacted a series of penal laws (the penal code) which severely restricted the Catholic majority in Ireland. Every member of the Irish Parliament and every office-holder in Ireland had to take an oath of allegiance to the Protestant faith. Catholics were forbidden to become teachers, to possess guns, or to own a horse worth more than £5. Roman Catholic priests were forced to leave Ireland, and Catholics were forbidden to marry Protestants. The government of Ireland passed into the hands of a Protestant oligarchy. Many of the great landowners were never in the country, and their representatives at times treated the Irish peasantry callously. Parliament was in the hands of the great Protestant families, and the church under the control of absentee and sometimes irreligious bishops.

For subsequent events in Irish history, see Ireland: history 1782 to 1921, Ireland, Republic of, and Northern Ireland.